Susan Blackmore - Does Consciousness Exist?

Next time you attend an academic conference about consciousness research, keep an eye out for Dr. Sue Blackmore. She'll be the one with the green spiky hair and the boundless enthusiasm, who, after thirty years of research into paranormal psychology, gave it up and became an “open-minded” skeptic and educator. And today she is an intrepid explorer in the quest for a theory of consciousness.

This interview, recorded by EnlightenNext's Craig Hamilton at Blackmore's home in Bristol, provides a basic introduction to the field of consciousness research and its wild assortment of theories, intriguing cast of characters, basic problems, hopes, and established facts. Far from academic, this scholarly ride is a mind-bending, reality-altering journey into a field that's coming into its own.

BIO

Sue Blackmore is a freelance writer, lecturer, and broadcaster, and a visiting lecturer at the University of the West of England, Bristol. She has a degree in psychology and physiology from Oxford University (1973) and a PhD in parapsychology from the University of Surrey (1980). Her research interests include memes and the theory of memetics, evolutionary theory, consciousness, and meditation. She practices Zen. Sue Blackmore no longer works on the paranormal.

She writes for several magazines and newspapers, and is a frequent contributor and presenter on radio and television. She is author of over seventy academic articles, about fifty book contributions, and many book reviews. Her books include Beyond the Body (1982), Dying to Live (on near-death experiences, 1993), In Search of the Light (autobiography, 1996), and Test Your Psychic Powers (with Adam Hart-Davis, 1997). The Meme Machine (1999) has been translated into eleven other languages. Her textbook Consciousness: An Introduction (2003) was short-listed for the British Psychological Society Book Prize. Forthcoming books are A Very Short Introduction to Consciousness (OUP, 2005) and Conversations on Consciousness (OUP, 2005).